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My race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner.
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“My race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner.”

Booker T. Washington

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Source
Up from Slavery
Date
1901
Meaning

Meaning of “My race will succeed in proportion as it…”

Distinctive success can come from doing ordinary work unusually well, emphasizing thoroughness and indispensable usefulness rather than status.

Source context

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Up from Slavery, Chapter XVI, “Europe,” Project Gutenberg #2376. While discussing Henry O. Tanner and recognition for excellent work, Washington restates his Tuskegee principle that advancement depends on doing useful work so thoroughly that its value becomes difficult to ignore.

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Ideas connected with this quotation

BusinessCalmDiscipline Quotes About Habits, Practice & ConsistencyEffortGrowthHard WorkInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityMotivational Quotes for Action, Effort & PersistencePatiencePeaceProductivityResponsibilitySelf ImprovementSelf-Control Quotes About Restraint & JudgmentShortSimplicitySuccessMotivation For WorkWork Ethic
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work is only done well when it is done with a will
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“work is only done well when it is done with a will”

John Ruskin · The Crown of Wild Olive · 1866
Meaning & context

Ruskin links quality with willing engagement: merely being compelled to perform a task is not, in his argument, enough to produce work done with judgment and commitment.

Source details

The Crown of Wild Olive, lecture on Work; Project Gutenberg #26716. The sentence occurs in a discussion of how hard work should be organized and chosen; its period labor assumptions remain contextualized.

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Do your work quietly.
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“Do your work quietly.”

Booker T. Washington · Character Building · 1902
Meaning & context

Useful work does not need constant display; quiet concentration can keep attention on the quality of the task rather than recognition for performing it.

Source details

Character Building, “Some Great Little Things,” Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington places this instruction among small daily habits of order, quiet, cleanliness, reading and reflection that he treats as important parts of character formation.

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The master-word is Work
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“The master-word is Work”

William Osler · The Master-Word in Medicine · 1903
Meaning & context

Osler makes sustained work the organizing principle of his address to medical students, emphasizing disciplined practice over brilliance without application.

Source details

The Master-Word in Medicine, address delivered October 1, 1903 at the opening of the new buildings of the University of Toronto Medical Faculty; reviewed against the represented 1903 John Murphy pamphlet, Internet Archive identifier b28060805. ‘The master-word is Work’ is Osler’s organizing refrain and is followed by his appeal to write the word on the heart and forehead. This remains historical professional rhetoric rather than an endorsement of unsafe working hours or workaholism.

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